The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of its draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) health assessment for ammonia, which will have an impact on the health of housekeeping and custodial staff, manufacturing employees, and those who are exposed to ammonia-containing products in the workplace. The draft assessment will be available for public comment through July and will be sent for independent expert peer review.

Ammonia is used in cleaning products, agricultural fertilizers, the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and explosives, water purification, as a refrigerant and in many industries. Scientific studies show that ammonia can affect the respiratory system. The draft assessment includes an estimate of the amount of ammonia a person can inhale daily throughout a lifetime that is not likely to cause harmful health effects, which is less stringent than the current value for ammonia on IRIS.

The draft IRIS assessment for ammonia represents major progress for EPA in implementing the April 2011 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommendations for improving IRIS assessments. The draft assessment uses a new streamlined document structure that is more transparent and clear; includes a template for describing the literature search approach; identifies the strengths and weaknesses of analyzed studies; and describes how EPA applied their guidance, methods, and criteria in developing the assessment.

When the assessment is final it will be posted to the IRIS database. IRIS is a publicly available online database that provides high quality science-based human health assessments used to inform the agency's decisions on protecting public health and the environment.

The IRIS database contains crucial information on more than 550 chemical substances and their impacts on human health. Governments and private entities use data from IRIS in conjunction with exposure information to help characterize the public health risks of chemical substances. These characterizations are then considered in risk management decisions to protect public health.

More information about IRIS: http://www.epa.gov/iris